As pundits nationally debate the merits of adding Maryland on Monday (and Rutgers on Tuesday) to the Big Ten, Dave Brandon could only be happy.

For Michigan, this was a sweet deal.

“The Baltimore-Washington market selfishly for the University of Michigan is an extremely rich market in terms of the number of alums and the fans that we have down there,” Brandon told the Free Press today. “We have huge alumni clubs down there and heretofore it was rare that they would get a chance to see the Wolverines and now Maryland competes in 19 sports and we’re matched up with them in just about every one of them and so this will give Michigan a chance to be in a growth area of the country with a high population of Michigan fans and a lot of TV viewers and a lot of people who care about athletics.”

Add that the Big Ten presidents were enamored with Maryland’s academic standing – which Brandon called a “great academic institution” and one of the Top 20 public universities – and it was an ideal fit.

“As you look out over the next many years, you want to be in areas where there’s growth, where recruits are coming from, where you’re going to be able to grow with population,” he said. “Although we’re very proud of our Midwest-centric tradition, there’s a lot of growth, in fact more growth, in other regions of the country and the fact that we’re moving into some of those areas over the long haul will be very positive for this conference.”

On fit: “It’s got to be a fit. You don’t expand just for the sake of expansion at all,” he said. “You’ve got to put yourself where long term you’re go gin to look at that decision and you’re going to be happy with what it’s going to bring to all the member schools. When you look at all the population growth and all the market that we’ve traditionally been in versus the way population has been growing and shifting in all these other regions and looking at the number of households and sports fans in these other areas, these are target-rich opportunities for us to connect with alums, to connect with fans to bring our university to showcase what we are and what we’re about.”

On further growth, staying at an even number of schools: “I think it’s important, particularly with football being broken up into divisions. It wasn’t all that difficult when we had 11 teams because we weren’t split up into divisions, we weren’t playing a championship game. Now that that’s our structure, I don’t see and easy way to do it with an odd number of teams. So it’s certainly my belief and hope we’ll get to 14 and then we’ll have seven teams and have to go through the whole process of rescheduling in the out years, the whole discussion of eight conference games vs. more conference games, the whole discussion of the structures of the divisions. It’ll be great fun for our fans.”

On who is making decisions: “These processes are conducted at the very highest levels. The commissioner and his office work with the presidents of institutions and they go through the due diligence on both ends and then ultimately, the decision to elect another school is done by the council of presidents.

On Brandon’s input: “I’m not short on opinions when we have discussions on these matters I’m not afraid to speak out and provide those opinions, One of the things I respect is the collegiality. We just don’t have a lot of situations where there’s a lot of dissension.

"Maryland was perceived to be a great brand and a great institution located in a very positive area for us to grow. If tall the details could be worked out, which there were many, this could be a very positive thing for the conference long term. The way to look at these decisions is long term. We’ve been in the conference for over 110 years I’ve been following it for decades and I don’t recall anybody leaving (in modern times.) In the Big Ten conference you’re in it for the long haul. And so these decisions have to be thought through within the context of a long time span. It’s not, how did this institution’s football team do this year or the year before or that kind of stuff.

"It’s really a function of what kind of institution are they, where are they going as an institution and what kind of brand image do they have, what is their academic fit and ultimately, from an athletics perspective, will they over the long haul bring value to what we’re trying to create as a conference. With that set of questions, I really believe Maryland came out very very well.”

On other expansion pushing the Big Ten’s move: “I don’t think it’s a chess game where if one conference moves here then we’ve got to move over there or anything. We have to do what’s right for the Big Ten. We’re unique and we have our own culture. We have our own values and our own way of doing things and we have to stay true to that. I’m not sure every other conference has done it that way but that’s how we’ve chosen to do it. We think that’s absolutely, best.

"You can’t be ignorant that there are other conferences out there that are expanding and moving geographies and trying to create competitive advantages, we’re not blinded to that, but that, in and of itself are not go gin to go out and grab schools…. You’ve got to get it right. That’s why we’ve been cautious and deliberate and careful in the way we’ve approached conference expansion in all the schools we’ve talked to and all the conversations and the considerations we’ve made. So far what you’ve seen is we’ve added Nebraska and we’ve added Maryland and maybe there will be somebody else around the corner. It’s been a very deliberative process and it should be. You don’t want to screw this up.

John Beilein's take

“I’ve left all those decisions to the Big Ten, and they’ve done a great job of this, as you can tell. They studied this for a long time, I’m sure. I let them make those decisions. Between the Big Tern Network and the conference right now, they’ve been very good to men’s basketball since I’ve been here to where we are right now.

"A lot of that has to do with the Big Ten channel and the success of our football programs. If they believe Maryland is the right fit, I’m all for it.

"The East Coast market, with the success of our channel, the footprint has gotten bigger, we’ve gotten more into the Midwest but the East Coast is a pretty good idea."

On recruiting: “We’ll see but the East Coast has been hard to get some of the kids form the Metro Atlantic area to drive by the Marylands, the Georgetowns, to come to Michigan. Some of them are really looking forward to that, they want to get away from home. Other kids, with the emphasis on unofficial visits if Maryland wants you and it’s between the drive between here and Ann Arbor, that’s a difficult get.”

On extended travel: “With the way we’re allowed to travel right now, it’s still going to be 18 games. I don’t care if we’re going to Maryland or you’re going to Nebraska or Minnesota, there’s still going to be travel.”